Type Different: Changing the Keys on Your Keyboard

Keyboard Basics There's a few things to know about keyboards you plug into your computer: They have little computers in them. When you press a key, the little computer in the keyboard sends a signal to your actual computer telling it what key you pressed. The little computer in your keyboard is programmed with a map that defines which keys send what signals to your computer (i.e. when you press the "a" it sends and "a" signal). Some keyboards let you reprogram the map to change the signals each key sends (e.g. you can set it up so the "a" key sends the "z" signal). (Keyboards built into laptops work the same way. It's just a little easier to think about them as separate things for this post.) Good Defaults Each keyboard come with a default map that defines the signal each physical key sends to your computer. That map is what lets different keyboards lay out keys in different ways. For example, the "Alt" key on this keyboard is the third one from the left. On this one, (where it's…